Category: Research
-
The Lambs
I do believe that we are now done lambing. There are still a bunch of ewes left to lamb, but none of them appear to have significant udders. The AI experiment seems to have really messed up their cycles, but if we knew how to make it all work, it wouldn’t be an experiment, would… Continue reading
-
Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part Four: Inseminating the Ewe
It’s ewe insemination day. This is the insemination pipette. It’s a modified pig insemination device. It is carefully threaded into the ewe. Ken had to hold all of the ewes in the chute. Without a squeeze, this was the only way to control them. It worked fairly well, all things considered. Insemination is simple. We… Continue reading
-
Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part Three: More Ram Collections
With the USDA folks back, it was time to collect semen again. This time, it will be a slightly different freezing protocol. Here you can see the rams in the sweep, ready to go. They are not happy – they know what’s coming. One ram, Desert Weyr Kai, got to go in with the ewes.… Continue reading
-
Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part Two: Syncing the Ewes
Our next step in the AI project is syncing the ewes’ heat cycles. We put CIDRs in all of the ewes today. The first group will be the AI girls. The second batch is a control group, and they’ll be bred via a live cover ram. He’ll be testing the sync procedure. Here you can… Continue reading
-
Ewe Sorting and Lamb Vaccinations
We got one batch of ewes sorted out today. This group will go to the live cover ram as a control for the AI procedure. They’re now all sorted into breeding pens, and they’ve had their fall dewormer to kill nose bots. The potential AI girls are now in the other pen, closest to the… Continue reading
-
Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part One
Today was the start of another sheep AI experiment. We started our 2009 trials with the USDA-NAGP people. We collected semen from 14 adult Black Welsh Mountain rams. Each ram had its picture taken in front of a size-marked tarp for future reference. While I managed to get pictures of the picture-taking process, I didn’t… Continue reading
-
Sheep AI, Day Three
Day three proved to be hectic. We had poor post-thaw motility on the frozen semen for some reason, so we had to rearrange and collect the rams again and use fresh, cooled semen. With 56 ewes to inseminate and 15 rams to collect, it was impossible to get any pictures of the proceedings. Our cell… Continue reading
-
Sheep AI, Day One
We volunteered to be a test flock for a new sheep AI procedure. The plan for day 1 was to give the ewes their shots to bring them into heat. I didn’t get any pictures of the procedure, as we were working fast to get them all done. For the actual inseminations, we’ll be putting… Continue reading
-
More Bread
For Christmas, we spent the entire day baking the bread we started on Christmas Eve. We made some changes to the Cooks Illustrated No-Knead Bread recipe. The basic recipe is as follows: 15 ounces of flour (weighed) or 3 cups1/4 teaspoon yeast1 1/2 teaspoons table salt3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons… Continue reading
